Hotel Social Media Ideas For Effective Marketing
by Alyssa Fate
When a hotel chooses the right social media ideas, its posts can forge relationships with followers, gain new audience members, and boost direct bookings. Social media marketing for hotels has evolved rapidly, and Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok each offer opportunities to reach target markets.
Whether you’re just starting or re-establishing a hotel’s social media marketing strategy, the process can seem daunting—but it can also be an opportunity. Building a creative and engaging social media content calendar is necessary to remain relevant for audiences, and doing this takes considerable time and effort.
That’s why we made a convenient list of engaging social media ideas for hotel marketers and gathered tips for creating successful marketing strategies. Start planning your hotel’s social media marketing using these ideas, without starting from scratch.
Themes for Hotels’ Social Media Posts
Brainstorming ideas for a hotel’s social media posts and categorizing them can help you include a good range of content. When you lay out the calendar, select content from across these topics to avoid repetitive posts and keep the feed feeling fresh. Here are several themes a hotel’s social media post ideas may fall into:
About the Property
Showing off a property’s best features, amenities, rooms, and other FOMO-inducing content is a proven social media marketing strategy for hotels. Additional ideas include historical information about the building or hotel, showcasing the staff, and offering insider tips on rooms and rates.
Specials & Deals
Sharing special offers on social media incentivizes potential travelers to book a stay at your hotel. Remember to highlight loyalty program posts and rewards to show off the benefits of becoming a member, and increase your audience on other channels, like email marketing.
Groups & Events
When your hotel offers meeting rooms, conference spaces, and wedding venues, social media is one of the top spots to spread the word. The hotel’s social media ideas can expand on group rates, planning services, and feature upcoming events.
About the Area
Destination content in social media marketing for hotels entices travelers to visit the area’s attractions and stay at your convenient property. Post family-friendly entertainment, couples adventures, and outdoor attractions to tailor content for different target audiences. Collaborate with local businesses and announce deals and offerings on your social posts.
Question & Answer Posts
Question-and-answer posts are an easy way to encourage interactions on social media platforms. Ask your audience about the last time they visited, when they plan to visit next, their favorite things to do in the area, and then engage authentically with their answers.
User-Generated Content
Social media is an excellent channel to garner guest reviews and user-generated content. Reposting user-generated content, including photos, testimonials, reviews, and posts provides the social proof audiences crave. Encourage guests to share content by publishing hashtags and creating contests, and through printed marketing materials, like comment cards and table-tent displays.
Repurposed Content
Hoteliers should share blog posts, news coverage, and travel articles across social media platforms to get extra eyes on them and get extra mileage out of the content. If it isn’t an exact match for a social platform, hoteliers can recycle certain elements—testimonials, photos, or excerpts—into a new post that works. Repurposed content fills gaps in social media calendars and saves busy hotel marketers loads of time.
Jump to Social Media Tips for Hotels
Our Top 54 Hotel Social Media Post Ideas
- Property-Shared Travel Tips & Tricks
- Guest-Shared Travel Tips & Tricks
- Property Trivia
- Hotel News
- Hotel Events (conferences, charity events, parties, etc.)
- Staff or Employee Highlights
- Positive Guest Reviews
- Amenity Tours or Highlights
- Room Tours or Highlights
- Behind-the-Scenes Tours
- On-Site Dining Tours or Highlights (including chef specials or favorites)
- Positive Media or News Coverage About the Hotel
- Special Offers
- Local Discount Programs or Discounted Partner Tickets
- Loyalty Program Information
- Event Space Tours or Highlights
- Catering Menu & Photography
- Special Event Photography
- Historic Photos of the Property or Hotel
- Area Tips & Tricks
- Area Trivia
- Nearby Attractions (with mileage for walking & driving)
- Nearby Dining (including distance, type of food and price range)
- Nearby Events
- Need-To-Know Destination Information
- Interesting Facts About the Destination
- Positive Media or News Coverage About the Destination
- Questions (open-ended questions like, “What was your favorite part of vacation?”)
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Surveys
- Polls
- Request for Help (name our new menu item, specialty drink, pool bar, etc.)
- Request for Feedback (how can we improve our hotel?)
- Facebook Live Videos
- Guest Interviews
- Share Your Top Vacation Photos
- Share Your Best Resort Selfie
- Property Scavenger Hunt
- “Tag a Friend” (that you want to bring to our hotel, etc.)
- “Like & Share” (use calls to action to increase engagement)
- Room Giveaway
- Photo Caption Contest
- User-Generated Photos Featuring Your Property
- Before and After Vacation Photos
- Video Submission Contest
- #MondayBlues
- #TravelTuesday
- #WineWednesday
- #WeddingWednesday
- #ThrowbackThursday
- #SundayFunday
- Holiday Posts
- Hotel Updates
- Property Blog Articles (cross-platform content sharing)
Social Media Marketing Tips for Hotels
Hotels are using social media posts to increase their audiences, improve brand awareness, and boost direct bookings, and when this is done well, followers become loyal customers. It can be hard to make your hotel stand out on social media, but quality content that’s timely and genuine helps people feel connected to your brand and look forward to future posts. Here are some guidelines to ensure that social media marketing strategies for hotels foster guest relationships and help meet your goals:
Post Selectively
Hotels should reserve social posts for valuable content about the property or destination, tips and tricks for travelers, and relevant information; some self-promotional material is okay, but too many ad-like posts can drive away an audience.
For balance, we recommend the 80/20 rule: 80% of your social media ideas should encourage page engagement, share relevant content, and be genuinely helpful, and the remaining 20% can be reserved for promotions, deals, and special offers. Also keep in mind that it’s the quality of the posts, not the quantity, that will get results.
Consider the Channel
Gone are the days when marketers could simply copy and paste posts across platforms. Each channel now has defined nuances, functionality, formats, and audiences to consider. While the social media topic ideas can translate across platforms, you’ll need to use tools, like Canva or in-app tools, or lean on Generative AI for help creating content to tailor posts for platforms. Here are some social media basics about each platform:
This is often used for longer-form content conducive to guest engagement and brand awareness. Incorporate Facebook advertising to expand your reach, and share links to relevant pages, like your hotel’s calendar of events. Remember to respond to reviews and comments regularly to keep customers engaged.
This mobile-centric platform is known for live content, stories, and reels. The audience for Instagram is mostly Gen Z, followed up closely by Millennials, and thankfully, these demographics have big travel ambitions. Get followers’ attention by posting visually interesting property highlights or a weekend getaway in photos. The platform produces loads of user-generated content that offers seamless social media marketing opportunities for hotels.
TikTok
Influencer marketing can be successful for a hotel on any channel, and it reigns supreme on TikTok. If your hotel’s social media marketing strategy includes user-generated content, this platform produces plenty. Use posts from professional travelers or recent guests to help fill your feed without investing in original content. When you do create videos, use the platform’s tools to trim, filter, and add special effects to make the content fun. Social media ideas of hotel tours, interviews, and reviews, perform well on TikTok.
X (Twitter)
This platform— formerly known as Twitter—won’t be a primary driver for direct bookings, but your presence on it can increase brand awareness and influence travelers. Social media posts can be quick, easy interactions that rely on visuals and hashtags to do the heavy lifting. Many other hospitality brands have a home on X so consider social media post ideas for networking and engagement.
Understand Your Core Audience
One foolproof way to get a feel for who your true page audience might be is to evaluate your page analytics or insights. These platforms offer more information than likes, follows, and comments. Use the analytics to see engagement patterns, audience metrics, and preferences to understand who your guests are and what they value.
Stick to Brand Standards
Maintaining a consistent image across all social media platforms is key. Make sure you establish brand standards and social media guidelines, and that everyone on your marketing team is well acquainted with internal procedures.
Complete the Hotel’s Social Profile
Be sure all profile fields are complete and up to date for your hotel. This includes page name, property description, website links, phone number, hours, and other basic facts. You’ll also want to verify your page and set up a custom URL. Here are some helpful links to verify your social pages:
- Request a Verify Badge on Facebook
- About X-Verified Accounts
- Verifying Instagram Accounts
- Verifying TikTok Accounts
Post at the Right Time
Timing is a big component of social media posts. Use analytics to determine when your audience is most likely to be online and schedule your content for those time frames. The cadence of your posts is also important—you don’t want to overwhelm followers but you need to post consistently to create a presence.
Consider Paid Ads
Hoteliers should implement paid ads along with their hotel’s organic social media marketing strategy. Adding paid advertisements to the hotel’s marketing budget can increase its social media reach and drive targeted traffic to the website.
Make Interactions Genuine
Social media is just that—social. It requires interactive social media post ideas and engagement between the hotel, followers, and fans. Answering questions and responding to comments, reviews, and private messages shows your audience that you are listening, and fosters a relationship with them. Don’t ignore or delete negative feedback—unless it is offensive or harmful—a squeaky-clean page looks suspicious. When you post, keep it engaging and interesting and be true to the brand, but use a genuine, natural tone to show them the human behind the hospitality brand.
Set Realistic Goals and Measure Them
All of your hotel’s social media ideas should be moving you toward achieving your goals, but you need to be sure your expectations are realistic. Double-check your goals against SMART parameters (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) to ensure they are achievable. When you’ve chosen key performance indicators (KPIs) for your social media strategy, prioritize the types of social media posts and content ideas that will get you there. Testing is an essential element of any marketing campaign, including social media. Experiment with post type, time of the day, and audience targeting to find what works best for your brand.
Social media marketing for hotels is constantly changing. Hoteliers must adapt their social media ideas to stay relevant and offer their audiences the engaging, relevant content they want. Take the guesswork out of building a hotel social media strategy — contact the experts at TravelBoom Hotel Marketing today.